I have to respectfully disagree with Rob on the specifics of his suggestion.
Iâm all for you (Bernard) for making copies of your art available. M78 would
look great on my office wall!
I donât know where the 3x2 aspect ratio comes from that Rob is referring to.
(Full frame 35mm?) Standard frames are 16x20, 8x10, etc. Basically a 4x5 ratio.
But even so, I think itâs a major mistake to let the frame or other
peopleâs convention to dictate the best way to present your art. A piece we
almost bought yesterday at a gallery in Sedona was 50âx54â. (We may still
buy it. Itâs costly enough I have to think about it whereas my better half
was ready to hand over the credit card right then. Iâm stingy!) Most of my
art photography was shot on a 6x6 medium format camera. The rest were done on
large format cameras, which typically have a 4x5 aspect ratio again. But not
always. There are 7âx19â LF cameras out there. (I always lusted after
them!) Donât let the imaging chipâs aspect ratio dictate the final
printâs ratio either.
I suggest you pick the aspect ratio that suits the image the best. Heck, itâs
popular these days to do borderless, frameless images. And then the buy can
pick a frame that matches the decor of their house.
As for doin business with Amazon, I just suggest you read all of the fine print
very carefully and make sure you understand the legal ramifications and not
what you think the legalize means. Consulate a contracts lawyer would be one of
my steps before I signed anything of Amazonâs.
Iâve looked into self publishing my photos but have never gone ahead and done
it. But there are lots of ways to self publish a photo book these days. Some of
them will only charge the same printing fee that theyâd charge for a short
run and not a percentage of the purchase price. (I wouldnât be surprised if
Amazonâs 40% cut is on the list price of the book, not the discounted sale
price that the customers actually pay. That would be consistent with what
Iâve heard of their dealings with small merchants.)
So if you want to go the route of being a published artist, I suggest you look
around a lot before deciding on any vendor arrangements.
Mike McDonald
mikemac@xxxxxxxxxxx
My wifeâs fine art website is https://carolmcdonaldfineart.com/ ;
<https://carolmcdonaldfineart.com/>
On Apr 29, 2019, at 1:59 PM, rbaldwin2903@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I do have two suggestions, and I know you have heard these before. I will
keep trying!
1. A 3x2 aspect ratio would make your images easier to sell as art. Perhaps
you could frame with a very slightly smaller subject and then crop it to
3x2.
2. You should combine these images with all the others on your website and
publish them in a book. The traditional way of getting a publisher to
accept your book remains incredibly difficult. A modern alternative is to
self-publish. Check out Kindle Direct Publishing which is a free Amazon
service. It allows you to self-publish and you earn about 60% of the
royalties. It's supposedly fast and easy. I do not know him, and have no
idea of how to get in touch with him, but a guy named Dan Slater is the
leader of author relations for Kindle Direct Publishing. Give it a shot and
I will purchase the first book. Maybe someday my bird photographs will be
worthy of self-publishing.
All the best,
Rob Baldwin
